On November 18, a long running dispute between Canada Post and a particular household on Farrow Street — a conflict which meant no mail was being delivered to that street at all since last November — has come to a resolution.
But it’s a resolution that has still left questions for councillors given the final decision from Canada Post.
A letter from the Kitimat office’s superintendent, Michael Gee, said that “In the event future incidents occur involving this dog menacing our delivery employees, Canada Post will make a permanent change in delivery mode for Farrow Street customers...”
That change, he continued, is to install a permanent community mailbox for the street, and they will install the equipment to support that change.
The idea of one animal causing a permanent change to Farrow Street’s mail had Councillor Rob Goffinet in particular up in arms.
“I would call into question their reasoning and ask that Canada Post to justify a decision such as this that holds hostage of an entire street in perpetuity to the behaviour, temporarily, of a dog that may live on the street. I cannot believe that they would listen to our proposal, and reject it,” he said.
The District of Kitimat had offered to install, on the town’s dime, a temporary community mail box if the specific problem dog remained an issue. That would allow door-to-door service to resume at a later date. Chief Administrative Officer Ron Poole said the proposal was presented but ultimately rejected by Canada Post.
“That’s very disappointing,” was Goffinet’s response to that.
Speaking to the Sentinel, Canada Post spokesperson Eugene Knapik said their back-up plan is to keep their service from being interrupted again.
“We really hope the issue is resolved and our employees don’t encounter any further problems with this dog,” he said. “In the event this problem comes back...we’re going to change mode of delivery to CMB (Community Mail Box), and we’re not going to have another gap in delivery.”